Because you did not believe: The Promised Land and the broken shield

“The Lord then said to Moses and Aaron:

Because you did not believe that I could

Assert my holiness before the eyes of the

Israelites, you will not lead this assembly

Into the country which I am giving them.”

--Numbers 20:12

“Come consider the wonders of the Lord…

He puts an end to wars…/ He breaks

The bow, He snaps the spear, shields

He burns in the fire…” –Psalm 46: 8-9

This was my morning reading today. I have been working my way through the book of Numbers, and just came to that wondrous story of the Israelites at Kadesh complaining about their lack of water and Moses striking the rock with a staff to bring forth water for the people (cf. Nm 20. 2ff).  And it is a little painful to run hard up against that statement by God: Because you did not believe… you will not lead the people into the promised land!

I was troubled. Why was God being so hard on Moses and Aaron?  What did they do wrong? They basically did what He told them to do! They took the rod and when Moses struck the rock the water flowed.  Is the problem that Moses struck the rock? Maybe... God told them to “order the rock to yield its waters (some translations read: speak to the rock…” (20: 8b) but instead Moses strikes the rock --twice! There is speculation by some scholars that the second blow is the real problem. But, I don't know.  I'm still pondering it, and it is still troubling. There seems to be a kind of vindictiveness to this God who bans Moses and Aaron from the promised land simply because Moses lost his temper with the people (something God does quite often in this part of the Bible) and struck the rock.

Yet, there was that psalm.  And it kept echoing in my head as I read Numbers.  It worked on me like a counter-melody or a "haunting refrain." Why had God put these two readings together for me this morning? Why had He given me a reading about destroying our defenses and our weapons and a reading about how lack of trust in God could keep us out of the promised land; what was God saying to me? I imagine it has something to do with the way I cling to security and safety.

In the psalm God tells us how He puts an end to war: He breaks our weapons, melts our shields. We are left completely defenseless, completely vulnerable –and completely dependent on Him for protection.  And in the reading from Numbers He told me that if I don’t trust Him completely, depend on Him fully, I cannot reach the promised land.

And as I read the psalm one of the first things that came into my mind was a person I work with who frightens me. The authority and the defensiveness and the anger this person demonstrates make me anxious and fearful and worried about protecting myself and my job.  And my immediate thought was: if I see this person today, I should speak to them. I should share this with them. I should tell them about this wonderful passage from Psalm 46.

God will break our bows, shatter our spears, burn our shield.  God will take away our defenses and then, on top of that, we must trust Him, and THEN, and only THEN, can He lead us to the promised land.  Because the promised land isn’t about an earthly, geographic, space. The Promised Land is found in our faith, in our trust. It is that place where we put our complete faith in God. It is a place without weapons, without defenses, where God is our shield and our guide and our way and our promise.  The way to the Promised Land is through putting our faith in God's might, not our own. The way to the Promised Land leads straight  to the Cross, and then the tomb, and only then to the resurrection.  That is the Promised Land. And the way to get there begins with giving up your weapons, and putting down your shields.